Comparing UBI to Minimum Wage Policies

Although the Raise the Wage Act recently got rejected in the Senate as a part of the federal coronavirus relief efforts, I still believe it has the potential to be implemented in some form post-pandemic. Thus I will spend this piece synthesizing the most important aspects of my last two articles and using policy analysis to generate a conclusion as to which policy best fruits within a utilitarian framework — or what plan does the most amount of good to the most amount of people.

I’m going to be using a policy analysis framework that looks at the options based on three categories:

• Effectiveness: the potential impacts of the plan
• Efficiency: How probable is this plan to pass? What is necessary to ensure the funding and correct implementation of the plan?
• Unintended Consequences — What are the potential determinants or consequences of the plan?

Effectiveness

Efficiency

Unintended Consequences

Although the UBI offers numerous potential benefits, the current state of the economy and federal government would not be able to withstand the additional deficit the UBI would inevitably bring. Furthermore, the RTWA is the better targeted and more efficient way to raise people out of poverty while mitigating the potential harms.